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Dear Covenant Scholars,
We are so grateful you chose Carolina for your undergraduate education. Your designation as a Carolina Covenant Scholar signifies your accomplishments, the university’s investment in your future, and the incredible opportunity to graduate debt-free from a world-class institution. You have our full support.
This guide contains critical information about resources, supports and opportunities exclusively developed for Carolina Covenant Scholars. Scholars who engage deeply with the opportunities outlined in this guide are most likely to build relationships, experiences, and skillsets that yield internship placements, job opportunities, and lifelong networks of mentoring and support. Use this guide throughout your career at Carolina to get plugged in, stay on track, and make the most of every opportunity to position yourself to thrive in college and after graduation.
Our team with the Carolina Covenant Program coordinates this network of investment and support for you, and we are also part of that network of support. Consider us a “home base” as you navigate your time here at Carolina. We look forward to meeting with you one-on-one to get to know you better, to support your goals and dreams, and to help you navigate any questions you may have about managing connections between your financial aid and opportunities to maximize your collegiate experience.
These resources are the products of a deep institutional commitment to your success and represent many individuals across and outside the university who believe that investing in your success will change the world. With this in mind, I encourage you to maximize the promise of the Carolina Covenant by choosing to engage with these resources and opportunities early and often. We are here to support you and to celebrate the achievements that will surely come along your way.
Sincerely,
Candice Powell, PhD
Director
The Carolina Covenant is more than an exceptional financial aid package. As a Carolina Covenant Scholar, you are wrapped within a campus-wide commitment to your success. A comprehensive infrastructure of support systems and a committed network of mentors and liaisons ensure that you have every opportunity to successfully complete your undergraduate education. Further, our University is dedicated to setting you up for post-undergraduate success in graduate school or the career field of your choice.
From wellbeing support, individualized mentoring, admissions test-prep review sessions, graduate school pathway discussions, high-impact career preparation, training, and job placement opportunities across a wide array of professions to community events like trivia nights and socials, the Carolina Covenant Program offers an array of opportunities to help you thrive at Carolina. Read your eblast (the name of our community email update) each week to learn more about the workshops, meetings, events, and resources we coordinate for you. You can also make an appointment with us or drop by! We’d love to connect with you.
Covenant Career Readiness and Opportunity
Watch video testimony from Covenant Scholars about supports & opportunities!
Financial Aid | Career Readiness and Job Placement |
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Networking and Community Support | Your Participation and Engagement |
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The Carolina Covenant’s support for you leverages a rich network of strategic University partnerships that will benefit you in college and far beyond. Covenant Scholars who take full advantage of these opportunities are in the best position to make the most of their Carolina education.
Connect with a Carolina Covenant Mentor. Our Mentors are Carolina faculty, professional staff and administration, and peers at the University who can provide direct support for your individual interests and goals. The Covenant’s rich network of professional mentors represent a wide range of academic departments, professional schools, and administration, and have supported thousands of Covenant Scholars along their path to success at the University and beyond to graduate school and career opportunities. Covenant Scholars may request a faculty or staff mentor at any stage of their academic journey.
See our list of outstanding faculty and staff mentors.
To connect with a faculty or staff mentor, you will need to complete the Mentor Request Form.
To connect with an upper-level Carolina Covenant peer mentor during your first-year, be on
the lookout for an email in August asking if you would like to opt in. Students must opt-in to be matched with a peer mentor. The email will provide details for opting in and completing a survey about preferences for matching you with the best-fit peer mentor!
Connect with a Carolina Covenant High-Impact Liaison. Liaisons will actively seek connection with Covenant Scholars throughout the year to invite interested students to engage more with the professional school or academic and career-focused program they represent. There is a liaison for each of Carolina’s professional schools, and a pipeline program initiative for Covenant Scholars at the UNC School of Law, School of Medicine, and Kenan-Flagler Business School. Liaisons will host at least one information session each year for all Covenant Scholars, and serve as a connector, point of contact, and support for students seeking admission or deeper experience with their program or school.
Connect with our liaisons by emailing them directly to share your interest and ask specific questions about their department, program, or school, and attend their information sessions for Covenant Scholars (advertised in our e-blast). They are looking forward to hearing from you!
The Connecting Carolina’s Covenant Scholars (CCCS) initiative coordinates targeted
career preparation experiences at the University, a curated network of professional
advisors, our High Impact Liaisons, successful alumni and friends, local corporate and
industry partners, as well as financial and human resources to help you successfully
pursue and secure competitive career opportunities.
To be considered in priority pools for employment opportunities and to be
considered for special funding for career development experiences, you should
participate in the Covenant Career Accelerator Program. Scholars who move through
the Accelerator are positioned to have the first look in recruitment processes with our
employer partners and will have more relationships, training, and experiences to
position them as competitive applicants for jobs and graduate school.
To join and participate in the Covenant Career Accelerator Program, you must:
Join the Career Accelerator Program!
*Communication about the program occurs during the fall and spring semesters.
While not required for the Accelerator Program, these courses are highly recommended and
provide the extra edge of readiness for career competency development.
Enroll in EDUC 111. Career Exploration. 1 Credit. Career Exploration is a designed to expose first and second year students to career development theories, while providing a framework for exploring and discovering their interests and skills. For first- and second-year students.
Enroll in EDUC 311. Life-Career Design. 3 Credits. This course examines the contemporary
research in career development (e.g. happiness, purpose, decision-making, values, experiential learning). The course guides students to use design thinking to apply the concepts to life action plans.
Enroll in EDUC 411. Making Liberal Arts “Work”. 3 Credits. Learn how to translate the outcomes of a liberal arts education to the world of work. The course will engage students in connecting one’s intellectual and practical learning, as well as individual and social responsibilities to contemporary career skills and life-career design.
Your Covenant Career Accelerator Program experiences interwoven with your overarching
academic, leadership, and social experiences at Carolina should provide you with the career readiness competencies below. The Accelerator tracking surveys and materials will help you to identify which experiences provided you with certain competencies and help you articulate the value of your work and the impact of what you learned for yourself and for career development and placement opportunities.
Career Readiness Competencies from the National Association of College Employers
Rameses Tar Heel Jr.
Carolina Covenant Scholar, Class of 2026
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The Carolina Covenant is an incredible financial aid package that may include a combination of various scholarships, work-study, and grants – no loans – covering financial need (Cost of Attendance Minus Estimated Family Contribution) for individual students who qualify. The Covenant is also a system of supports and resources to help Covenant scholars thrive at Carolina and beyond.
With these significant financial, academic, and social supports, Carolina Covenant Scholars have the opportunity to graduate from UNC Chapel Hill debt-free and ready for the world.
The Carolina Covenant financial aid package meets the true need eligibility for every individual Covenant Scholar. It covers the cost of attendance minus expected family contribution through a combination of grants, scholarships, and Federal Work-Study. Each Covenant Scholars’ need eligibility is different, and so your financial aid package will look different from your peers. Comparing your package to another Scholar’s package is unlikely to help, but we hope that the following topics in this quick guide section will. We are also here to help you understand the billing process and how your financial aid is applied to your student account.
In some cases, your grants and scholarships may be taxable. It is best to seek the advice of a tax expert to look at your individual case. You will take the Award Notification of the tax calendar year (spring of the prior year and fall of the current academic year) to your tax preparer. In addition to private tax preparer services, the IRS has a free online tax service as well local agencies such as The United Way. Also, some credit unions offer free tax services.
You will need to take the 1098T form to your tax preparer to see if you are eligible for a tax tuition credit. Note that only students who paid money towards their tuition generally qualify. Our Cashiers Office issues 1098T forms based on financial aid disbursed to your student account during the calendar year’s tax period. Visit the University Cashier’s website to learn more.
While your budget includes a book allowance (about $645 a semester), your books are not automatically paid for with your financial aid. We do not recommend charging books at Student Stores to your account before your aid disburses. If possible, we recommend waiting for your aid to disburse (should be by the first day of classes) and your refund to hit your account and then use these funds to pay for your books. You will need to pay out of pocket for any difference. Consider renting or buying used books to offset costs. Learn more about additional resource on finding course materials.
You will be packaged at the highest meal plan rate (about $2,627 a semester). We recommend that students living on campus choose a meal plan before the start of school to ensure a smoother process for financial aid disbursement. Many Scholars find that they do not require the highest meal plan. The lower the meal plan, the more of your meal budget shows up as part of your refund. If you are living off campus and choose not to have a meal plan, you can use this budget toward your meals anywhere. Find more information on meal plans.
All students are required to have health insurance. If you are not covered under your parent’s health insurance, enroll in Student Blue student health insurance plan and complete the insurance budget adjustment request form to have funds applied to your account to cover the health insurance charge.
The Carolina Covenant financial aid package provides the opportunity for Carolina Covenant Scholars to graduate debt-free. To increase the likelihood that you will graduate without debt, we encourage you to make financial decisions that keep your expenses within the scope of the financial aid package and avoid loans unless you absolutely need it. For example, staying within the standard double occupancy rate for housing expenses on or off campus, maximizing work-study and employment opportunities, planning to maximize fall and spring course enrollment at 12-15 hours each, and considering study abroad experiences that are at the exchange rate can help you stay within the scope of your financial aid.
Contact the Covenant office with financial concerns so that we can support your consideration of all options for emergencies or academic opportunities before loans.
You can use our budgeting calculator to apply your per semester aid against your university billed costs. This will help you determine if your choices in housing or meal plans will cause you to owe a bill, or to be eligible for a refund.
Stay in the know of Covenant events and happenings!
Hosted by the Covenant Student Advisory Council!
We are here to help, so feel free to reach out!
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